A friend is planning to run a way of the wicked campaign and gave us the option of using the focus and foibles or 25 pt buy... foolishly I went with the foible and after planning out a Monk ended up with the following stats before choosing my race:
Str 18
Dex 12
Con 10
Wis 8
Int 16
Chr 8
Of course the low wisdom here makes the monk a less appealing choice... or does it?
So two questions:
1. What would you play with these stats? (race/class) (I'm serioulsy considering teifling, hobgoblin or orc for the race but pretty much anything from ultimate races is open. The party could probably use another melee type character though.)
2. Could I still use these stats and play a monk?
No wisdom means I'm not getting any benefit from the AC bonus... so suddenly light armor is a possibility. Of course that means losing fast movement and flurry, but if I've lost flurry for another ability (eg MoMS) maybe that's not such a big deal... and several of the monk archetypes don't use wisdom for their 1st level special abilities (eg elemental fist/perfect strike instead of stunning fist/punishing kick.)
Anyways any thoughts are appreciated.
Personally, I wouldn't play a monk with those stats.
If you're allowed to use APG, I'd go melee alchemist. Lately, I've been hung up on them and you're perfectly geared to be melee alchemist. For race, I'd go human for the extra feat, extra extracts, and the +2 ability score.
Edit: Actually, a Magus might be good too. I've never played one, but I think they're Intelligence casters/melee fighters.
Design Manager
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It would be a monk with few uses of his ki abilities, low AC, decent attack and damage, and solid skills. So.... Playable, but with some serious issues. Tiefling wouldn't be bad, but I'd be thinking Magus over monk with those stats.
If you have it available to you, a Sohei monk might be a fun way to go with those stats, building up to a competent mounted fighter.
Witch would probably also be a solid way to go, maybe multi-classed with monk and taking the Hex Strike feat.
Long story short though, those stats are going to make a monk impractical, at best.
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magus or rogue or fighter- though not a tank type unless you take toughness, your con is a little low for front line work.
Race-wise, the stats don't suggest any particular race to me. I'm not seeing anything that boosts both Strength and Intelligence, though I may be missing some options.
I would possibly play a Magus, though that 10 Con makes me worried about health. A fighter could work as well, say a Lore Warden or Tactician. At that point I might just take the base stat array to take a race that doesn't normally fit into one of those classes. Dwarf Magus, for example, might be interesting (though that drops Cha to 6, which is dangerous for ability damage).
Gish Wizard/ Fighter eldrich knight human
Magu
Thug Fighter/ Rouge
Spellless Ranger/Rouge
Race Human, Hobgoblin, Ork, 1/2 Ork, Dwarf, Hafling, 1/2 elf, Tiefling Hell if you are game a powerfull elf all STR and INT.
The Lore Warden archetype for the fighter class could be a lot of fun. Magus would work out really well for those stats as well.
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You could potentially use a master of many styles/martial Artist. Then you don't have to worry about ki, flurry or ac. Maybe dip a level of unarmed fighter for the armor prof/style feat and then stand up front with your high ac and damage. At that point the only thing the low wis is hurting you for is the martial artists exploit weakness ability but that is gravy with your hi strength.
That being said, this is not an optimum build and I would also recommend the Magus. Go human and take toughness or go dwarf for the con bonus. But be careful, the high damage and low ac of a Magus makes them targets. My 9th level Dwarven Magus has been dropped about 60 times and has died 4 times.
Lore warden and the master of war prestige class could also be a great fit.
I'd be rolling up something like a Halfling Cavalier or a Transmutation specialist Wizard.
Duelist! Or a run of the mill heavily armored fighter.
If you're allowed to use APG, I'd go melee alchemist. Lately, I've been hung up on them and you're perfectly geared to be melee alchemist. For race, I'd go human for the extra feat, extra extracts, and the +2 ability score.
This ^
Google Ogre's Alchemist guide and look at the "Mr. Hyde" build he has put up. Your stats fit it very very well!
Alchemists are fun to play and delightfully effective if done right. :)
You could try a Martial Artist archetype monk. They don't really use Wisdom as much as the standard monk. Heck, you could even try dipping fighter and putting him in armor. Forgo the flurry of blows and movement bonus in exchange for AC and you can still get a nice unarmed strike, some abilities, and bonus feats out of your monk levels.
To be honest though, you've got great Magus stats there.
I would suggest a Gnome. Either Magus or Fighter/Wizard going Eldritch Knight.
Your stats would end up:
Str 16
Dex 12
Con 12
Wis 8
Int 16
Chr 10
Or just go Dwarf Fighter if you really want to use that 18 in Str and don't mind being a bit unlikeable.
I don't know a thing about pathfinder psionics, is there a good way to use that to make a butt-kicking psychic warrior? Maybe sprinkled in with Monk like that homebrew thread?
Psychic Warriors use WIS for their powers, so that's out. I'm going to throw another vote behind the melee alchemist - looks like the stats would fit really well.
A friend is planning to run a way of the wicked campaign and gave us the option of using the focus and foibles or 25 pt buy... foolishly I went with the foible and after planning out a Monk ended up with the following stats before choosing my race:
Str 18
Dex 12
Con 10
Wis 8
Int 16
Chr 8Of course the low wisdom here makes the monk a less appealing choice... or does it?
So two questions:
1. What would you play with these stats? (race/class) (I'm serioulsy considering teifling, hobgoblin or orc for the race but pretty much anything from ultimate races is open. The party could probably use another melee type character though.)2. Could I still use these stats and play a monk?
No wisdom means I'm not getting any benefit from the AC bonus... so suddenly light armor is a possibility. Of course that means losing fast movement and flurry, but if I've lost flurry for another ability (eg MoMS) maybe that's not such a big deal... and several of the monk archetypes don't use wisdom for their 1st level special abilities (eg elemental fist/perfect strike instead of stunning fist/punishing kick.)Anyways any thoughts are appreciated.
I cannot comment on Ultimate races, but regarding question #2:
If you want to play a monk, either1. Take Sohei
2. Plan on using mage armor or getting braces of armor and go for a ranged build
Regarding option 1 here: Sohei can flurry in armor, especially with unarmed strikes. Potentially do a 1 level dip into fighter brawler archetype to get armor proficiencies and enjoy the benefits from both classes. I am actually doing this in a game and looks quite good, particularly since sohei gets weapon training and thus allows you to get gloves of dueling. Combined with the 3rd level brawler damage boost to unarmed strikes you can inflict truly incredible amounts of damage with your unarmed strikes when power attacking and flurrying.
A further thing you could do is add qigong monk to the mix and switch out ki dependent abilities for feats or abilities that don't require you to expend ki points, just have some in your pool. Take extra ki maybe once to make a more effective use of your ki abilities and you are set in my opinion :-)
So yes, you can play monk this way. Other classes such as fighter just might be easier. Looking at that high intelligence prestige classes like duelist become interesting. Or you go for maneuvers, e.g. for combat expertise/trip/dirty tricks combined with crane style.
You could also look at sage sorcerer, combine it with sohei either for dipping or going for eldritch knight...
Anyway, there are lots of things you can do with those stats, so don't worry. If you want to play a monk you can do it :-) Wrt melee you can pretty much do anything with those stats.
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Design Manager
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@ Sangalor
Sohei's don't get to flurry in armor. They gain proficiency in light armor, but still follow all the normal restrictions for flurry. The only way they change that class feature is when they gain Weapon Training and get to add additional weapons to the list of those compatible with Flurry.
Sohei is still a decent choice if he's set on monk with the stats he has though.
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Tiefling fighter duelist with just a splash of martial artist monk....think Hellboy..
Human Magus, take toughness and put your bonus into con ?
@ Sangalor
Sohei's don't get to flurry in armor. They gain proficiency in light armor, but still follow all the normal restrictions for flurry. The only way they change that class feature is when they gain Weapon Training and get to add additional weapons to the list of those compatible with Flurry.
Sohei is still a decent choice if he's set on monk with the stats he has though.
They can flurry in armor from the start with unarmed strikes, with some other weapons later.
I won't get into a rule discussion here though, there are enough threads about that already :-)
Considering Sohei's mechanics are badly written and a bunch of stuff is either confusing or just flat out doesn't work... Probably a good idea to just avoid that suggestion, no?